Yerington People: Eric Whitacre & Hila Plitmann - Classical Music Month

Yerington People: Eric Whitacre & Hila Plitmann - Classical Music Month

Giving honor to Eric Whitacre and Hila Plitmann this Classical Music Month.  Eric is my nephew-in-law.  He is the son of Ross and Roxanne (Hall) Whitacre of Yerington, NV.  Roxane is the sister of my sister-in-law, Robin (Hall) Barnett.  As a family, we are very proud of the accomplishments of Eric and his wife, Hila,  Eric is a composer and conductor and Hila is an opera singer.  Both are quite accomplished in the classical music arena.

 

Eric Whitacre (born January 2, 1970) is a Grammy-winning American composer, conductor and speaker, known for his choral, orchestral and wind ensemble music. He is also known for his "Virtual Choir" projects, bringing individual voices from around the globe together into an online choir.

Born in Reno, Nevada and raised in Yerington, Whitacre began his full musical training while an undergraduate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, eventually taking a BM in Music Composition.  Whitacre states that the first work that he sang, Mozart's Requiem, changed his life.] He studied composition with Ukrainian composer Virko Baley and choral conducting with David Weiller, completing his BM in Music in 1995. At 21 he wrote his setting of Go, Lovely Rose for his college choir and presented the composition as a gift to David Weiller. Whitacre went on to earn his Master's degree in composition at the Juilliard School. At the age of 23 he completed his first piece for Wind Orchestra, Ghost Train, which has now been recorded over 40 times. While at Juilliard he met his future wife, soprano Hila Plitmann. He lived in the state of Nevada until he was 25. He graduated in 1997 and moved to Los Angeles and following the success of Ghost Train, he decided to become a full-time professional composer.

Whitacre's first album as both composer and conductor on Decca/Universal, Light & Gold, won a Grammy in 2012, and became the no. 1 Classical Album in the US and UK charts within a week of a release. Eric's second album, Water Night, was released on Decca in April 2012 and featured performances from his professional choir the Eric Whitacre Singers, the London Symphony Orchestra, Julian Lloyd Webber and Hila Plitmann.

Whitacre has written for the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Julian Lloyd Webber and the Philharmonia Orchestra, The Tallis Scholars , The King's Singers and the Minnesota Orchestra, among others. His musical, Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, won both the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Harold Arlen award and the Richard Rodgers Award, and earned 10 nominations at the Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards. Whitacre also worked with film composer, Hans Zimmer, co-writing the Mermaid Theme for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. In 2011, he conducted the winning entries of the Abbey Road 80th Anniversary Anthem Competition, recording the London Symphony Orchestra and the Eric Whitacre Singers, in Abbey Road Studio 1. Whitacre's Soaring Leap initiative is a dynamic one-day workshop where singers, conductors and composers read, rehearse and perform several of his works.

Whitacre has addressed the U.N. Leaders program and has given a TED talk on his virtual choirs project.  He has addressed audiences at Oxford University,Harvard, The Economist, The World Economic Forum and the Seoul Digital Forum. From October to December 2010, Whitacre was a visiting Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, during Michaelmas (Autumn) Term. He composed a piece for the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and worked with students in masterclasses and workshops. He is now Composer in Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University.

Many of Eric Whitacre's works have entered the standard choral and symphonic repertories and have become the subject of scholarly works and doctoral dissertations.[ Whitacre has worked with pop artists including Annie Lennox, Laura Mvula, Imogen Heap, Nicki Wells, and Marius Beck and performed at iTunes Festival in London on September 17, 2014.

Eric Whitacre is one incredible example of how a single person can utilize social media to make a work of art that incorporates thousands of people from around the world. His most recent creation includes 3,746 videos from people in 73 countries. The first video began as something of an experiment after Whitacre saw a fan video on YouTube. He eventually invited people to submit videos of themselves singing the same song and worked to combine them into a fully integrated choir, a result that has been enthusiastically received by fans. It should be no surprise that someone has utilized on social media site to create such a stunning musical collaboration would also be actively involved in the Facebook and Twitter communities.

Hila Plitmann (born in Jerusalem 1973) is Grammy winning operatic soprano specializing in the performance of new works. She currently resides in London with her husband, composer Eric Whitacre, and their son. Plitmann's professional career began in 1998, when she premiered Pulitzer Prize winner David Del Tredici's The Spider and the Fly with The New York Philharmonic under the baton of Kurt Masur.  In February 2009, Plitmann was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance for her 2009 performance of Corigliano: Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems Of Bob Dylan

A nice article about Hila and Eric in Classical Singer Magazine.